I thought the following news story would be of interest to some of you.
On the contested causal relationship between 'moderate' alcohol consumption and wellbeing. Apparenty, the jury is still out.
For me personally, I won't be beating a path to the local pub.

Science steps up to the bar

Roni Caryn Rabin

BY NOW, it is a familiar litany. Study after study suggests that alcohol in moderation may promote heart health and even ward off diabetes and dementia. The evidence is so plentiful that some experts consider moderate drinking — about one drink a day for women, about two for men — a central component of a healthy lifestyle. But what if it's all a big mistake?

For some scientists, the question will not go away. No study, these critics say, has ever proved a causal relationship between moderate drinking and lower risk of death, only that the two often go together. It may be that moderate drinking is just something healthy people tend to do, not something that makes people healthy.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

I just put the occasional glass of red wine back on the menu. Reason #1 is my HDL cholesterol is below 40 and there's a study I thought reliable somewhere that states the occasional drink boosts HDL. I exercise a lot and watch what I eat. All the other cholesterol numbers are in the "good" range, but my HDL has remained low. Reason #2 is a recent study of Resveratrol, which originates in red grapes and is naturally concentrated in red wine. The study showed a reduction in the plaque-like substance that leads to dementia, etc in brain tissue.

Regards: AdvaitaJ

The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains. Li Bai

I think what the article is saying is some of those studies which linked moderate alcohol consumption to health benefits may not be as reliable as once thought.
Personally, I don't think anything could induce me to drink again.
Metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Mmm, just last night I had the opportunity to go out [and drink] and I'd not been out since October. I was extremely tempted. First, I was telling myself 'I can go out and not drink' (a thought quickly followed by 'but I really fancy a beer'). Then I was thinking 'what is my intention in not drinking? Is not drinking an attachment? Should I drinking moderately as per the middle way'. Then my rational mind [fortunately] kicked in and asked 'why don't I murder a few people in the spirit of moderation... not being attached to the first precept'... a rhetorical question I like to put in my mind to remember just how deleterious drinking alcohol really is.

In the end, knowing I would not have the self-control to go out without drinking, I stayed at home. I don't regret that decision. I still 'fancy a beer', but I don't really want a beer (if that makes sense).

In September I'm going on holiday with my parents, who drink A LOT and are strictly anti-religious (they don't know I am trying to practice theravada and they have had no reason to know yet). Firmly refusing to drink with my parents might cause a lot more dukkha all round than drinking a single pint of beer to shut them up. I don't know, it's something I've not figured out yet. Maybe it's time to 'come out of the closet' to my parents (who, even as I am 25, have said they 'would disown me if I ever became religious').

I'm not sure what the best course of action is. Aaaaaaanyway, I agree with Ben in principle, alcohol ain't [sic] a good thing by any measure.

Personally I think if a particular kind of alcohol is shown to aid a problem we are having, then it is a medicine with a side effect of intoxication which some medicines do have, one small glass used as one small glass not one large or two small glasses for health reasons then it is ok so long as it is used appropriately.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

Mawkish1983 wrote:'why don't I murder a few people in the spirit of moderation... not being attached to the first precept'

Mawkish1983 wrote:Firmly refusing to drink with my parents might cause a lot more dukkha all round than drinking a single pint of beer to shut them up.

Try this: When the time comes, just order a mineral water or cola or something. That way you'll have a beverage, too. If they ask why you're not getting a pint, just put your hand on your stomach, wince a little and say, "I better not today." If they press you, say: "Maybe later."

Then, once you have your mineral water, sip it, toast with it, whatever. As long as your bodily motions and demeanor is jocular and you're participating in the social interaction, they'll probably stop noticing that you're not drinking something with alcohol in it. A lack of desire to drink doesn't necessarily have anything to do with religion.

Rain soddens what is kept wrapped up,
But never soddens what is open;
Uncover, then, what is concealed,
Lest it be soddened by the rain.

I did, last time (February I think) and they 'smelled/smelt (which one is right? They're both in the dictionary!) a rat'. The questions started, things began to get heated and I was basically forced to have a bottle of beer to calm things down. It's a curious family dynamic, I know.

Sometimes I think it'd be less damaging to just nurse a beer all night. Anyone have any thoughts about this?

I've given up drinking completely. I don't need and it isn't healthy. I am much better for it too. After years of useing it I can't begin why anyone would want to. Now, if I could give up fat snacks and learn to work out.

Hi Mawk
I'm sorry to hear about the difficult family dynamic that you are caught in.
If you don't want to, there's nothing wrong with not disclosing your Buddhist faith to your family. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Perhaps a way to justify your non-drinking is to cite the deleterious health effects of alcohol consumption and suggest that you don't want to compromise your health, especially at this point during your PhD. In the past I have also mentioned the catastrophic effects of drink-driving on the community. It was something that was easy for me to do having worked a number of years in Victoria's No. 1 road-trauma hospital but also because an older brother of mine inadvertently killed himself on the road after a drinking binge some years ago.
Another thing you could do, if you have a taste for high-drama, is to call a spade a spade and tell them that you are a Buddhist. It might provoke an interesting situation but at least it would be out in the open and they could accept it or not accept it. You're 25 now, so its probably about time that they accepted and respected you for who you are, not who they would like you to be.
In my own situation, I just tell people that I don't drink. Its not that unusual anymore so most of the time its no big deal. Sometimes I might get asked 'why' and I'll then tell them that I am a Buddhist. If its a problem for them, its their problem. The monkey stays on their back, not mine.
Metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Conclusions: Low to moderate alcohol consumption in women increases the risk of certain cancers. For every additional drink regularly consumed per day, the increase in incidence up to age 75 years per 1000 for women in developed countries is estimated to be about 11 for breast cancer, 1 for cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, 1 for cancer of the rectum, and 0.7 each for cancers of the esophagus, larynx and liver, giving a total excess of about 15 cancers per 1000 women up to age 75.